US media group Disney acquired the rights to the New York City Marathon in a five-year deal, from 2012 to 2016, that will have the event shown live on national television for the first time in almost 20 years.
The 2012 Marathon, which takes place on November 4, will be shown live 9am to 12.30pm local time by Disney’s sports pay-television broadcaster ESPN on its ESPN2 channel and online. Disney’s free-to-air network ABC will show a two-hour highlights show in the afternoon on the day of the race. ABC broadcast the first live national coverage of the marathon in 1981 and showed it until 1993.
In New York, coverage will be available on ESPN’s affiliate regional broadcaster WABC-TV and online at 7online.com from 9am to 2pm.